Month: September 2017

So you’d like to lose those rolls of fat around your middle. Get rid of those pesky love handles forever. You’re willing to put in some modest effort, take some pain and discomfort, to get back your trim waistline.

But the truth is – losing belly fat isn’t quite so easy.

It’s important, for more than just appearance’s sake. Belly fat is a marker of a more serious problem – deeper visceral fat around your internal belly organs, which releases chemicals that can cause diseases like heart problems, cancer and diabetes. And a strict diet alone doesn’t always work to get rid of belly fat.

As your body ages, metabolism drops. Since your tissues consume less energy to perform activities, fat in the food you eat tends to accumulate in stores around your waist, thighs and butt. In women, menopause worsens this situation because of hormonal variations that throw wrench into the internal workings of your cells. This leads to more belly fat accumulation thanks to a relative increase in testosterone compared to estrogen and progesterone.

2. Working out the wrong way

Some exercises help build stamina and improve overall health. Cardio exercise is excellent for these purposes. But it isn’t very effective at ridding your body of belly fat. A combination of weights/resistance training and aerobic exercise as well as specific routines for tightening abdominal muscles is the ideal combination for losing belly fat.

Refined foods are rich in sugar or corn syrup, which leads to a general inflammation response. This in turn enhances storage of body fat around the hips and thighs. Antioxidant-rich foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grain are protective against this inflammation and can help with losing belly fat.

4. Consuming wrong fats

Fats rich in monounsaturated fatty acids are healthy and will not cause belly fat deposition. But saturated and trans fats are bad for your body. This is the kind found in meat and dairy products and lead to weight gain.

5. Not working out hard enough

To melt belly fat, your workouts must be fast paced and hectic, even if brief. Low intensity exercise is not quite as effective. Effective workouts for losing belly fat involve hard and fast activity for short bursts of time. Repeating these routines many times in a day can speed up the fat loss process.

6. Insomnia

Sleep and rest are good for lowering blood levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that is responsible for surplus dietary fat to be deposited around the belly. By altering fat metabolism, a lack of adequate sleep can make you fat and unfit. Getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night can help you lose belly fat.

7. Being stressed

Financial, work-related or domestic stress can wreak havoc on your body. When you function under high-stress conditions, you tend to eat more, prefer unhealthy ‘comfort’ foods, and alter your internal hormone levels in a manner that increases fat deposits around your middle. Cortisol plays an important role in this.

8. Lack of motivation

Losing belly fat is hard work. And you must be committed to doing what it takes for as long as it takes. For many, losing weight is just an idle dream. They are not serious about working out or changing their dietary habitspermanently. As a result, they may drop a few pounds but quickly add them back on. Being motivated and inspired to stick with any regimen for fat loss vastly increases your chance of succeeding at it.

9. You have the wrong genes

Some people are genetically predisposed to putting on weight around their middle than on their hips and thighs. If you are one of them, getting rid of belly fat can be harder work, though not impossible.

Knowing the reasons behind why it’s so hard to lose belly fat is helpful in avoiding those which can be modified and accepting the factors that are out of your control. Regardless of anything else, a healthy diet and regular exercise workout routine can help shed extra pounds and help with losing belly fat in almost everyone who sticks with it.

While losing belly fat is easy when you follow these tips, there are other things that make up a healthy figure and it’s a good idea to follow an integrated fat loss program that will also guide you about how to eat healthy, develop more muscle and lose weight in a manner that is sustained over the long term. Among the best programs of this type is Shaun Hadsall’s “14 Day Rapid Fat Loss Plan”.